Buckingham Palace occupies the site of old Buckingham House, which was altered and enlarged to fit it for a Royal Residence by John Nash in the reigns of George IV. and William IV. It was altered again in 1837 for Queen Victoria, and the east front (that shown in the Illustration) added in 1850, when the Marble Arch was removed from the front of the Palace to its present site at the north east corner of Hyde Park. The lake in the foreground is the ornamental water in St. James’s Park.
[CHAPTER VII.]
1851–1853.
Louis Napoleon’s Coup d’État—Condemned in the English Press—Lord Palmerston’s Indiscretion Rebuked by the Queen—He Repeats it and is Removed from Office—Opening of the New Houses of Parliament—French Invasion Apprehended—Russell’s Militia Bill—Defeat and Resignation of Ministers—The “Who? Who?” Cabinet—Death of the Duke of Wellington—His Funeral—The Haynau Incident—General Election—Disraeli’s First Budget—Defeat and Resignation of Ministers—The Coalition Cabinet—Expansion of the British Colonies—Repeal of the Transportation Act.
THE Great Exhibition closed on October 15, 1851, and hardly had the contractors begun to dismantle the glittering fabric, before the vision of universal peace, which some |Louis Napoleon’s Coup d’État.| spirits had hailed in it, was rudely shattered by events in France. The coup d’état whereby Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte seized on the government of the country and suspended the Constitution took place on the morning of December 2. This event concerns the present narrative only in one respect. When the news came to England it caused an almost unanimous feeling of horror at the massacre of peaceful citizens. The Queen, who was at Osborne, was informed on December 4 of what had taken place, and at once wrote to the Prime Minister, enjoining on him the necessity “that Lord Normanby (her Ambassador at Paris) should be instructed to remain entirely passive, and should take no part whatever in what is passing.” These instructions were conveyed to Lord Normanby next day by the Foreign Minister, Lord Palmerston. But, in a despatch written by Lord Normanby to Lord Palmerston on December 6, informing him that he had made known to M. Turgot, the French Foreign Minister, that he had received Her Majesty’s commands to make no change in his relations with the French Government in consequence of what had passed, the following startling passage occurred:—“Monsieur Turgot said that ... he had two days since heard from M. Walewski (French Ambassador in London) that your lordship had expressed to him your entire approbation of the act of the President, and the conviction that he could not have acted otherwise than he had done.”
J. Leech.] [From “Punch”.
THE “JUDICIOUS BOTTLE-HOLDER,” OR DOWNING STREET PET.
“Bless you! it’s all chaff—won’t came to a fight. Old Nick’s got no constitution—and then, I’m Bottle-holder on t’other side, too!”